BILL REQ. #:  H-1447.1 

Read first time 02/21/13.   Referred to Committee on Technology & Economic Development.

     AN ACT Relating to the contents of requests for proposals in the procurement of enterprise application software solutions by state and local governments; adding a new section to chapter 39.26 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds that:
     (a) Procurement of enterprise application software solutions is a growing portion of state and local government expenditures;
     (b) Enterprise application software information technologies are essential to innovating public service processes and reducing the costs of providing government services; and
     (c) A fair and transparent comparison between constantly changing enterprise application software solutions is not always achieved if certain basic inquiries are not made of potential bidders during the request for proposal stage of procurement.
     (2) Therefore, the legislature intends to require state and local governments to include the provisions in section 2 of this act within any request for proposals that evaluates enterprise application software solutions.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 39.26 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) When a state agency or other unit of local government develops a request for proposals for an enterprise application software solution, the following information must be requested of potential bidders:
     (a) At a minimum, a five-year total cost of ownership of the proposed enterprise application software solution based on a five-year historical average total cost of ownership experienced in at least three of the most recent implementations of the enterprise application software solution by the proposal bidder. This cost information must be allocated to each year of the period outlined in the request for proposals.
     (b) For the three most recent implementations of the enterprise application software solution by the proposal bidder: (i) A statement of the original proposed costs or bid response for each implementation; (ii) a statement of the actual costs to fully implement each corresponding implementation; (iii) a statement of the original timeline proposed for each implementation; and (iv) a statement of the actual time it took to fully implement each corresponding implementation.
     (c) A statement by the proposal bidder of their willingness to defer design, development, and implementation costs until the enterprise application software solution being proposed is fully implemented and to amortize, in no less than monthly increments, the remaining costs of the proposed enterprise application software solution over a specified period of time. Bidding preference must be given to proposal bidders who are willing to conform to the provisions of this subsection.
     (d) If the enterprise application software solution is proposed to be hosted by the proposal bidder, a statement that the agency or unit of local government's data will be hosted in a tier IV data center.
     (e) A full explanation of the proposal bidder's client data disaster recovery plan that ensures seamless operations in case of localized disaster. If a proposal bidder does not have an acceptable disaster recovery plan for these situations, their bid must be deemed nonresponsive.
     (2) For the purposes of this section:
     (a) "Enterprise application software solution" means software and other information technology solutions used by a state agency or unit of local government to provide mission-oriented information technology applications, including, but not limited to, online payment processing, automated billing systems, security, enterprise content management, information technology service management, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, project management, collaboration, human capital management, enterprise application integration, and enterprise forms automation, regardless of whether it is self-hosted or hosted by the vendor or other third party.
     (b) "Tier IV data center" means a data center that meets or exceeds the standards for a tier IV classification published by the Uptime Institute in its document entitled, "Data Center Infrastructure Tier Standard: Topology," dated August 1, 2012.
     (c) "Total cost of ownership" means all direct and indirect costs associated with the enterprise application software solution purchase including, but not limited to, the costs of: (i) The capital investment or acquisition of computer hardware and software necessary for implementation and future operation; (ii) design, development, and installation; (iii) personnel training by in-house staff or outside consultants; (iv) maintenance and technical support; (v) platform system patches; (vi) major system upgrades and platform required upgrades; and (vii) any platform system downtime.
     (d) "Unit of local government" means a city, town, county, special purpose district, political subdivision, municipal corporation, or quasi-municipal corporation, including a public corporation created by such entities.